


The Enchanted Rocks

by nightfall_in_winter



Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017) RPF, Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types
Genre: Fairy Tale Style, First Love, Legends, M/M, princess Timmy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 00:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18510010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfall_in_winter/pseuds/nightfall_in_winter
Summary: Everyone loves Timmy but he will only be with someone after his own heart...





	The Enchanted Rocks

*****  
He was in his late 80s, a tough hermit with silver-grey hair and thick overhanging eyebrows. The wild forests growing in the foothills of the mountain were his home for over fifty years. I was a young man who loved lying in the thick beech shadows along the sprawling stream and listen to my companion’s beautiful stories.

This was a magical place - I’d often come here just to re-claim my sanity from the buzz of the big city and soak in some of his wisdom. Peace and awe-inspiring silence reigned over us here, seemingly absorbing the wild echoes of distant waterfalls and soft bird songs. Above us, in the turquoise sky, rose the rocky heads of the mountain peaks, bare and menacing in their quiet splendour. Not a cloud obscured the serene of this majestic scenery and only the calm and steady flight of the eagles above cast the occasional shadow over the gleaming waters of the rill.

My body was resting on a fragrant bed made of lush lemon balm and red clover, when the old recluse carefully bent over the fire and offered me some wild thyme tea. Small sweaty strands of hair embellished his elongated, red face. His large frame and his hearty laughter sheltered a voluminous and gentle soul.

We sat down sipping the aromatic liquid and we glimpsed in the infinite sky the black point of the eagle that was passing under the sun now. The bird slowly slid down and made wide circles with her still wings before rising rapidly and landing on the sharp rocks opposite us, the highest part of the mountain.

"The Enchanted Rocks," my companion said after a long silence. “Inaccessible, full of dangers and…cursed”, he added. “The locals say that no human has ever set foot on them since the world began. Many have tried but lost their lives…Everyone here believes that you can see a magical sight from the top of the rocks.”

His voice trailed away to an enigmatic, dreamy whisper.

“…The shadowy outlines of a splendid castle and the big Emerald Sea where the sun bathes every evening. A world so beautiful and tranquil that fills your heart with immeasurable happiness and delight…”

I looked up at the rocks, distant and illuminated by the rays of the ascending sun, sharp and overgrown with moss and lichen and then I looked underneath: forests, scattered slopes, steep precipices and a deadly abyss…

“A long time ago” he continued as he put his tin cup aside, “there was a small village in the foothills of these peaks. The villagers were shepherds, one with nature, free as the eagles you see above and happy in their small huts scattered around like seashells on the sand. The forests echoed with their songs and laughter in spring when lush grass covered the meadows and baby lambs jumped among the daffodils. A beautiful, simple life.” He sighed.

“…Only these rocks, so close and yet so remote in their silent arrogance, cast a shadow over the brave hearts of the young shepherds. For they knew the forests and the rest of the mountain inside out and could not look at the highest peaks without suppressing a hidden sigh. Young hearts are brave and bold, and they want to see the magical sea from the highest place. But how to take a deadly road full of dangers and uncertainty? Mothers tremble at the thought that their child would be seduced by the glory of a great feat…”

He was silent for a second and then he added.

“Sad were the young men who just looked up and sighed, not only because of the unattainable heights that questioned their bravery but because life cruelly added another grief to their hearts…

TIMMY.

The most beautiful creature anyone has ever seen walking this Earth. The village girls envied him, for his skin was whiter than milk and his hair was softer than new born lamb’s wool, but couldn’t bring themselves to hate him. Kind-natured and smiling, he would often sit on that large stone on the edge of the woods, like a forest spirit himself, watching the grazing sheep and playing his wooden flute. Young men would peek from behind the old trees to catch a glimpse of his delicate waist, so tempting and fragile in the folds of his white robe, or a bare ankle, luminous and thin like a silver birch twig caressed by sunrise. In the evening, when the sun was going down, the braver ones would intercept him on his way home, their eyes misty with silent desires, and give him a small bunch of wild flowers in the hope of brushing against his delicate fingers or sink in the depths of his eyes, clear and dazzling like the Emerald sea. They were confused and mesmerised by him, because his beauty was unrivalled, the beauty of a wood fairy blossoming in the tall, willowy body of a young man. The mere beauty of a woman was never going to be enough for their young hearts, not after they have seen Timmy at dawn – wrists covered in dewy primrose bracelets or in the heat of a summer day when his robe rested on the river bank like a sleeping swan and his naked body emerged from the water after a long bath in the river…”

My companion stopped, maybe to let the magic soak in, and when I closed my eyes, I could see Timmy – tender as a forest nymph, hair dripping over the beautiful long lines of his back that ended with the perfect curve of his bottom. Young shepherds went mad when they imagined that they could feel his nipples raise under the touch of their rough hands and they could feel his soft entrance in their dreams - tight and silky as a new petal of the pale jewelweed. Would they not feel like Gods, they thought, if they could claim this beauty for themselves and be the first to dominate and open him and eat the muffled sobs of his pleasure?

“And they made songs for him, sad songs of longing that echoed in the woods long after Timmy was in the arms of Morpheus and the moon was the only one to admire his daintiness through the roof hole of his hut. And even those who have never seen him, wanted him after they heard the tunes of the broken-hearted who all had one dream… “

“They started coming, from near and far, to ask for his hand in marriage. The rich wanted to bribe him with their wealth and the poor who had fervent hearts, were ready for a mortal feat to win him. “He is still young”, his old father would say, but one day, when he saw him returning home with the glow of youth on his face and the fire of burning lust in his eyes, he told him. “I love you more than anything, my beautiful Timmy. But you are no longer a child and you need to choose someone after your own heart.”

Timmy just smiled, as he seemed oblivious to the young men who were stalking him and shook his head. He ignored his love-blind suitors and anger ate at their hearts.

One night, a malicious hand burned his father’s huts and lit the whole mountain. But the old shepherd wasn’t scared. “Even if you burn me alive, I’d still give you the same answer. Timmy needs to choose for himself.”

One morning, he found his entire flock slaughtered. His heart bled and grief lamented his old soul. He hugged his precious Timmy and said:

"I'm not mad at you, my darling. You know my word. Your heart is not mine to give. Your choice will be my choice too…”

Timmy looked down, tears coming out of his eyes and pursed his lips before saying firmly:

"I will take the one who leads me to the top of the Enchanted Rocks.”

Stony silence settled among the suitors when they heard Timmy’s word. ”Is that a mockery?” one said. “Who can do this? Who has eagle wings to fly there? Impossible!”

And they slowly started walking away, outraged and defeated.

Only one man remained standing on the edge of the forest, tall and strong as a young oak. His eyes were soft yet determined. The sun caressed his sun-kissed face as he approached Timmy and run a hand through the golden flowers in his dark curls.

“I am not scared, Timmy. I will take you there.”

Тimmy looked up and froze at the blazing courage that illuminated this masculine, beautiful face.

“What is your name, big man?”

“Armie.” said the stranger and when he smiled, Timmy’s heart trembled like a leaf.

“Take me then. Only then I will love you and be yours…” Timmy said.

“What if we die?” said Armie, his breath ghosting over Timmy’s burning forehead as he was getting closer and closer.

“We will die together…” Timmy answered and rested his head on Armie’s broad chest.

“And what if you can’t take me all the way up there?” A sweet, purring whisper warmed Armie’s chest through his cloak.

“If you doubt me, you won’t come with me.” Armie’s heart was beating in Timmy’s ear, the only sound that mattered in the entire Universe.

Armie held out his hand and Timmy’s entire fist fitted among his giant fingers.

“Why are you not scared? All others are. It is a matter of life and death…” Their lips were almost touching now, and they could smell each other’s ache and thirst through their clothes.

“Life and death mean nothing after I saw you…”

“Let’s go then…”

On the following day, everyone from the surrounding villages came to the foothill of the mountain dressed in their best clothes, as if to celebrate a wedding. They all wanted to see how Timmy and his brave suitor will reach the summit of the Enchanted Rocks.

“Are you mad?” The old men reproached Armie. “Is it worth dying for this… _boy_?”

“For this _love_? YES! " Replied the young man and caught Timmy’s hand.

"Timmy, don’t you love life? What if you both die?" Someone shouted in the crowd.

Timmy’s lip twitched slightly before his dreamy eyes climbed the steep rocks.

"And what if we see the Emerald sea?" He replied.

“Well, what indeed?” The crowd insisted.

“I will know if Armie truly loves me. And I don’t need anything else.” Timmy said and waved goodbye to everyone.

The people held their breaths as they watched Armie and Timmy jump over the mountain shrubs and crawl over the talus, trying to find support for their feet on the slippery, rain-washed slopes. They saw tender and attentive Armie holding Timmy’s hand and trying to set stones to make stairs for them. Both seemingly sank into the abyss once and everyone gasped in horror, but they appeared again, Armie carrying exhausted Timmy in his arms on their way to the clouds. They were so high in the sky now that people could not see them anymore, but the top of the Enchanted rocks was even higher.

Many, many years have passed since but Timmy and Armie never came back. Nobody knows if they reached the top of the mountain and saw the Emerald sea…”

The voice of the old man died in the afternoon chill as he slowly stretched his legs and reached under his cloak. He took out a small wooden object and sighed before wiping it with the end of this clothes and blowing into it. Once. His wrinkled, sun-kissed face lit up.

A flute. So small it almost disappeared among his big fingers…

“Did you…” I stopped to think for a second, but I knew I had to ask. “Did you…” and I looked up again where early evening fog was enveloping the Enchanted rocks. “Did you…did you…and Timmy reach the top?”

He went even more silent and when he finally spoke, his words were slow reminiscence, coated in feigned nonchalance.

“I…don’t know what you are talking about. It is… just a local legend…People make up all sorts of stories to explain love or bravery…”

“Sure…” I nodded and swallowed all the questions that were eating me from the inside. What did they see? What happened? Were they together? For a day, for an afternoon, for an hour even? But then, what made me think that I had the right to know?

“Silly me.” I laughed. “Come on, old man, let’s find some shelter because the rain will be upon us soon…”

*****

**Author's Note:**

> This is my version of an old legend from the Slavic folklore.


End file.
